Sometimes in life, you accidentally knock up your wife, while trying to pay all the medical bills for your teenager with cerebral palsy on a high school chemistry teacher’s salary only to find out you have a terminal brain tumor and crappy medical insurance.

When that happens, turns out a few great money lessons abound.

**Disclaimer: I know I’m late to the game, but I’m only two seasons in right now, so no spoilers in your comments, please!!**

1.)   There’s always a side hustle to be found if you look hard enough.

Walter White is pretty much a chemistry genius. Despite that, he wound up working as a public school science teacher. When the going got tough, Walter assessed the skills he already had and turned them into an extremely lucrative side hustle.

Please note, just because you got straight A’s in high school chemistry, I am not encouraging you to start a meth lab. I am not encouraging anyone to start a meth lab. Although, apparently, it is incredibly lucrative.

Look at what you do from nine to five. What skills does it take to get that job done? What other jobs do those skills apply to? Can you harness them into a side gig?

For help getting started, you can check out 114 side hustle ideas right here.

2.)   When nothing goes right. Go left.

It’s good to have a back-up plan. When Walter and Jesse were taken on by Tuco, the demand for their supply sky rocketed. The problem was, you clearly can’t just walk into the local pharmacy and pick up that much pseudo.

Walter was prepared. He used his awesome chemistry prowess to determine methylamine would work just as well. After some viewer-friendly high jinks ensued in the stealing of the drum of methylamine, Walt and Jesse were back in business.

Not only did their Plan B work it – it turned out better and more distinctive than all the other people cooking meth according to the generic Plan A. Blue Sky became the product in the amphetamine drug trade.

Whenever you have a plan for anything – side hustles, your career, retirement, buying a house, paying for your kid’s college – consider what Plan B would be. If you don’t force yourself down a single track, the end result may be ever better than your initial idea.

3.)   Sometimes you have to ask for the order.

Sometimes having an awesome product is not enough. After Walt employed his incredible chemistry skills to create a product that the entire Southwest would soon be clamoring for, he still had to figure out how to get it to the people. Addicts weren’t just going to start knocking on his garage door, asking if he happened to have any meth.

Initially, Jesse was tasked with this part of the business. He went right to the biggest distributor of their product and meekly tried to get Tuco to take on their business. Suffice to say – it didn’t work. When Walter went back to reason with Tuco, he approached him fearlessly, brimming with confidence and asked for the order. Heck, I’d say he demanded it.

It worked.

Erin over at Broke Millennial has a terrific article all about asking for the order. Sometimes in life, you just need to step up and ask for what you want. Whether it’s a promotion, a business contact, or a better rate on a service, asking for the order has the potential to do wonders.

4.)   Sometimes you need to pay for professional help.

After a certain point, Walt realized that he was going to need help. That initial point was when one of his dealers got busted, but that initial meeting with a lawyer made him see the benefits of working with someone who is very skilled in an area you are not.

Saul Goodman became an excellent resource for Walt – from legal council to money laundering advice, Saul was the man. He cost a pretty penny, but sometimes the right advice is worth it.

Are you setting up your own business? The cost of a session with a lawyer just to make sure you’ve got everything covered is probably money well spent. Are your taxes ridiculously complicated? The cost of an accountant could keep you from making a mess of them yourself.

Even something small like starting a blog – paying for a good blog mentor on a regular basis or from time to time could be a really great investment (and I don’t even offer that service, so I’m totally not hawking myself here. However, I do believe some folks like J$ and Stefanie both do…).

It’s important to remember that expertise is actually worth something. Sometimes a YouTube “how to” video just won’t cut it. Especially when you’re trying to launder money – pay a professional for that shizzle.

5.)   Don’t keep secrets from your family.

Ok, like I mentioned at the start of this post. I’m only two seasons in. Walter can’t keep this from Skyler forever, right? RIGHT?? However right now, there is a ridiculous amount of tension in the White household because Walt just won’t tell his wife he’s cooking meth in a trailer in the desert with one of his old students.

Walter even goes so far in covering his tracks that he pretends to have a psychotic break and is found naked in a grocery store. It’s actually easier for him to pretend that’s the truth than to let his family in on what he’s been up to.

Gentlemen, want to know how to piss off your women? Lie to them. So blatantly that they know something is wrong and that you are totally lying… but just go on doing it. Cause, yeah, that’s going to work out well for everyone.

The lesson here is that relationships should be like a team and everyone in the family needs to know the plays in the playbook.

What you’re getting one another for Christmas? That’s a good secret. Using the retirement funds to buy a yacht? That’s a bad secret.

Cooking meth in the neightbor kid’s basement? VERY bad secret.

 

*Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on Femme Frugality and A Disease Called Debt*